Caboose in Halo Reach
by bob parley
Summary: Based on the video 'What I Did On My Summer Vacation' AU after season 5 and part 1 of a series.
1. Chapter 1

Caboose was sad. Everyone had just received new orders to relocate to a new base and upgrade to a new suit. Church had tried to hide what his orders were from Caboose, which didn't work. When Caboose asked if it was like a game of hide and seek, Church said he was right. Church continued by saying that he was going to hide from Caboose and said that the only way he could win, is if he died without ever seeing Him again. Caboose agreed and Church went off to his new base (as did Tucker, sister was too busy partying to leave), leaving Caboose all alone to upgrade to his new suit and wait for his transport.

_Meanwhile..._

The Warthog driver was nervous. He had been sent to pick up a Spartan only known as 'Noble six', but he had set off late because he got stuck in the toilet. And because the base where he was picking the Spartan up was on another planet, he been nervous of putting in the wrong coordinates into the Pelican he was using.

However, as 2 bases came into view, he was pretty sure that he had put in the correct coordinates.

He touched down in the middle of the field that separates the 2 bases and drove to the blue one (he knew that Noble six had blue armour) and he saw a blue spartan standing outside the base.

Caboose spotted the Warthog as it parked next to him.

"Get in because your late." The driver ordered.

Caboose was too sad to comment, so he got in and was subsequently taken to the Pelican.

The driver wanted to make sure he got the correct Spartan. "You are 6 Six?" He asked, once they reached the Pelican.

I am way older than six Caboose thought. "Yes."

The driver wanted to double check. "You are Six right?" He asked as he exited the Warthog.

"Yes." Caboose repeated, not understanding why he was asking again and still being sad over not having any friends now that Church had been relocated.

The driver shrugged and went to the cockpit while Caboose sat in the Warthog, just wanting to be left alone and not make anyone else sad.

_One journey later..._

Caboose was still sad and silent by the time they reached their destination: Reach. When they touched down and almost reached the base where the driver was supposed to deliver 'Six', Caboose's mood shifted from 'sad' to happy'. There was a lot of stuff that Caboose had not seen before, and many people. "This place is so cool!"

The driver was so caught off-guard by the comment, he almost flipped the Warthog over! Fortunately, he was able to recover. "Uh, I guess so?"

"And there's so many people I can be friends with!" Caboose realised.

The driver could not wait to get rid of Caboose. "Uh, sure?"

The driver sped up and only stopped when they reached the base. "You'll find your new friends in there." He said, pointing at a blue building.

The millisecond Caboose got out of the Warthog, the driver sped off, not that Caboose noticed.

There's some stuff! Caboose realised as he walked towards the building and passed by a Falcon. "Touch." Caboose said as he patted it and noticed there was some other stuff. He wanted to investigate, but decided to meet his new friends first.

Inside the blue building, the rest of Noble team were waiting for their new 'Six'. Their number 1 was Carter, their no-nonsense leader who wore light blue armor and carried a black M392 Designated Marksman Rifle.

Their number 2 was Catherine, the curious and intrepid second-in-command with a prosthetic right arm who was also their intelligence specialist. Just like Carter, she also wore light blue armor and carried an M6G Magnum rifle. She carried a black MA37 Assault rifle, but only because regulations demanded everyone have at least 1 primary firearm.

Their number 3 was Jun, the thoughtful sniper. He wore dark green armor and carried a black System 99 Anti-Materiel sniper rifle.

Their number 4 was Emile, the bold and aggressive assault specialist of the team. He carried a black M45 tactical shotgun and his armor colour was a mixture of white, black and dark red.

Their number 5 was Jorge, the heavy-weapons specialist with a 'humane' personality and had black and orange armor. He carried a modified black M247H Heavy Machine Gun, which he named 'Etilka'.

The reason why they were a getting a new number 6, was because the previous number 6 (Thom) had been killed destroying a Covenant CCS-Class battlecruiser a few months earlier during the Battle of Fumirole.

Noble team were starting to get bored, when they got a call. Carter quickly got up and answered it. Colonel Urban Holland was the one calling, and he delivered some bad news.

"Contact with Visegrád Relay was lost last night." Holland explained. "All signals flatlined at twenty-six hundred hours and I responded with trooper fire teams, which have since been declared as MIA.

"And now your sending us." Carter realised.

"The Office of naval intelligence believes deployment of a Spartan team is a gross misallocation of resources, I disagree." Holland replied.

It was here when Caboose entered. "Hello."

All of Noble team turned to face him.

Emile raised his knife (that all of the Spartans had) in an attempt to be intimidating, too bad Caboose is was Caboose he was doing it to.

"You look scary even though you are smiling." Caboose said, attempting to make a new friend.

Jun was flabbergasted. "What!?"

Caboose attempted to step forward, but Cathrine blocked his path with her prosthetic arm. "Hello, nice lady who is also a robot."

"That's our new number six?" Jorge asked in disbelief.

Emile was desperate for an explanation. "Anyone read his file?"

"Only the parts that weren't covered in black ink." Catherine sneered. _And based off his behaviour so far, he probably thinks somebody spilt black ink on his file!_ She thought.

Carter wasn't sure what to think, so he went back to his conversation with Holland. "Anyone claimed responsibility sir?"

"ONI thinks it might be the local insurrection." Holland explained. "Five months ago, they pulled a similar job on Harmony-hit a realy to take out our eyes and ears then stole two freighters from dry-dock. This cannot happen here. Reach is too damn important."

While he was talking, Caboose was thinking of names for his new friends. While he had already thought of 'Scary face' and 'Robot lady', he then came up with 'Leader', 'Not Church' and 'Giant Friend'.

"I want that relay back on-line, Noble One." Holland demanded.

"Consider it done sir." Carter replied.

"Then I'll see you on the other side, Holland out." The call ended.

Carter turned around and saw the rest of the squad running out of the building and towards their raptor, with Caboose about to follow them. "Six?"

Caboose turned around. "Yes?"

Carter introduced himself and the rest of Noble team. "I have to say, your not quite what we were expecting."

Caboose was confused. "What do you mean?"

Carter sighed. "Never mind, come on."

As they exited the building to join the rest of Noble team, Carter spoke up. "I'm not going to lie to you, Lieutenant. You're stepping in shoes the rest of the squad would rather leave unfilled."

"Is it because they stepped in gum? I do that all the time." Caboose replied.

Carter chuckled at this. "I have a feeling that we're going to get along just fine."

They got into the same Raptor that Jun was in, who moved as far away from Caboose as possible.

"I've read your file, and that 'Lone Wolf' ends here, we're a team." Carter said.

Caboose was confused again. "Yeah, I don't know what that means, so I'm just going to nod and say yes. Yes."

Carter sighed and decided to let the matter rest as the Raptor took off.


	2. Chapter 2

As they approached the relay, Carter spoke up. "Listen up Noble team, we're looking at a downed relay outpost fifty clicks from Visegrad."

Caboose began to click his mouth as a countdown.

Carter did his best to ignore it. "We're going to introduce ourselves to whoever took it out, then Kat's going to get it back online."

Caboose stopped his clicking. "Should I say hello to them?"

"Please do and spare us this torture." Jun sarcastically replied.

Carter felt like interfering, but decided not to.

"Just get me under the hood , commander." Catherine replied over the comms, who wanted to get rid of Caboose as soon as possible.

Jorge had a legitimate question. "Sir, why would rebels want to cut off Reach from the rest of the colonies?"

Carter had no idea. "I'm not sure, what do you think six?"

Caboose was staring into thin air.

"Er, six?" Carter asked.

Caboose looked at him. "I'm sorry what you were saying something?"

Carter sighed. "Never mind." _He better be good in combat._

Suddenly, Catherine's datapad bleeped. "Commander, we just lost our signal with HQ."

"What about the backup channels." Carter asked.

Catherine shook her head. "I can't say what's jamming us."

Caboose looked around. "I don't see any jam."

Carter had to bite his tongue to avoid being frustrated, when he saw that they had almost reached the outpost. "You heard her. Dead zone confirmed, command will not be keeping us company this trip."

"I'm lonely already," Emile sarcastically muttered.

Catherine's datapad bleeped again. "I'm receiving a distress beacon."

"That could be the missing troopers." Carter mused before contacting the Falcon pilots. "Put us down on top of the hill."

As the pilots were getting ready to land, Carter ordered Jun to stay in the Falcon and everyone else to come with him, including Caboose. _Now it's time to see if his combat skills make up for his childish personality._

The Falcons landed on top of a hill and everyone but Jun jumped out before the Falcons took off.

""Alright, Noble Team, spread out. Watch the approach." Carter advised.

Everyone started to go down the hill in a straight line opposite each other, which meant that everyone was covering the hill. At the bottom of it, was a burning Warthog.

"Is that vehicle where the distress beacon is coming from?" Carter asked.

Catherine nodded. "It is."

"Any ID?" Carter asked.

Catherine scanned it. "Negative, but it's military,"

"So where are the troopers?" Jorge wondered out-loud.

Emile looked down. "There's a lot of blood on the ground, with footprints leading on from it.

"Let's follow them." Carter ordered, he then realised something. "Where's six?"

They looked around, but they could not find Caboose.

"Jun, where's Six?" Carter asked.

He could hear Jun laughing. "He's on top of the hill, staring at a Moa!"

Carter got out his binoculars and saw that Caboose was indeed staring at a Moa. "Six!" Carter shouted.

Caboose looked down at Carter.

"Get down here!"

Caboose waved goodbye to the Moa and jumped from the top of the hill, to landing at the bottom of it. The force of the landing caused a shockwave and everyone almost fell over.

_How strong is he!?_ Carter thought. "What were you doing?"

"I was trying to make a new friend!" Caboose. "But he didn't speak any english.

Carter sighed. "Just follow me."

"Ok!" Caboose replied.

As they followed the bloody footprints, Carter could swear he heard Jun mutter "if six doens't get killed soon, then I'll do it myself."

Eventually, the footprints lead them to the relay outpost, where the footprints just stopped.

"Damn!" Carter uncharacteristically cursed before he remembered the mission "We need to find the control room so Cat can get the relay back online."

They turned left and saw a dead body on the floor, as well as an injured trooper sitting on the floor, not to far away from it.

Carter leaned down to the injured trooper. "Where's the rest of your unit?"

"We got split up," the trooper explained. "I don't think they... It sounded bad on the comms."

"All right, trooper, stay put," Carter told him "We'll get you a combat surgeon."

Caboose looked into a vent and saw a young woman. "Hello!"

Jorge shoved Caboose out of the way and dragged the young woman out of the vent, while she was hitting him and shouting things in Hungarian.

"It's all right, we're not going to hurt you," Jorge tried to ressasure the woman, who was obviously not ressassured.

The woman struggled for a bit more, before she looked up and screamed.

And before anyone could ask why, 3 Covenant soldiers burst from the ceiling. They all wore Maroon armor and the leader had an energy sword.

"It's the aliens!" Caboose called out as the Covenant charged towards Noble team, who fired at the Covenant and killed them all within a hailstorm of bullets.

"Bloody hell, it's the Covenant!" Jorge realised.

"It's worse than we thought." Catherine realised.

Carter nodded, but his mind was preoccupied. _Number Six recognized them. But why call them 'The Aliens' and not 'The Covenant'?_

While he was thinking about this, went over to the console and ripped off it's cover before inspecting the damage.

"This station be back online in two weeks at earliest." Catherine explained. "All major uplink components are fried."

"Two minutes is too long," Carter sighed.

"Which is why I'm splicing into the main overland bundle to get you a direct line to Colonel Holland..." Catherine replied. Carter stood there for a few minutes until she replied. "Signal. It's patchy, but it's there."

"I'll take it," Carter replied as he removed his helmet.

"Better not touch anything," Kat warned him as Jorge, the woman, and Emile left the room. "You wouldn't want to ground this place."

She sauntered out with Caboose, as Carter he walked over to the screen.

Colonel Holland's voice crackled over the radio. "... I'm barely getting you. What's your situation, over?"

"Colonel, this is Noble One," Carter told him. "There are no rebels. The Covenant are on Reach. Acknowledge?"

"Come again, Noble One? Did you say ?" Holland asked.

"Affirmative. It's the WINTER CONTINGENCY," Carter replied.

Holland didn't even hesitate before replying, "May God help us all."


	3. Chapter 3

_2 days later..._

The UNSC decided the next course of action was to send Noble team to Sword base to meet with Dr. Halsey, the creator of the Spartan 2 program. But because most of the team were Spartan 3's (except Jorge who was a Spartan 2, and Caboose who wasn't even a Spartan and only looked like one because of the armor). When they arrived at Noble base to meet with Halsey, she was less than friendly with them, especially after Carter tried to tell her what happened at the Visegrad relay.

"Commander, I already read the report and I don't need you to tell me what happened. What I do need is..." She then saw Jorge. "Jorge. It's been too long."

Jorge took off her helmet and his embarrassment was obvious from his blush. "Ma'am."

"What have you done with my armor?" Halsey asked unimpressed.

"Just some, uh, additions I've made" Jorge replied, showing off how colourful and bulky it was when compared to the rest of Noble team.

"I see." Halsey replied, before turning her attention to Caboose. "And what's your name?"

"I'm Caboose." He replied.

Carter felt suspicious immediately. _That wasn't his name on his file!_ While the others had not been able to get their hands on the uncensored file on Noble Six like he had (thanks to a friend in ONI). Either the file was lying, or Caboose wasn't the real Noble Six. _I will get to the bottom of this! _He thought, but kept it to himself to avoid distractions to focus on much more important things.

Meanwhile, Halsey was studying Caboose, He didn't move or act like any other Spartans, not even the offensive Spartan 3's. She decided to figure investigate him later so she turned back to Carter. "Visegrad Relay; it's data center was home to one of my xenoarchaeologists, Professor Laszlo Sorvad; perhaps you could shed some light on his death?"

"If he was a civilian male in his mid-60's, then he died with a Covenant energy sword through his abdomen" Carter recalled, they had found the bodies of many civilians after they took care of the Covenant.

Halsey nodded.

"We found your scientist's daughter, ma'am, she was hiding in the-" Jorge began, but got cut off by Halsey.

"Irrelevant." She said.

Catherine interjected. "Professor Sorvad's final entry in his field notes made reference to a 'latchkey' discovery."

"'Latchkey'... not a word he would use lightly. So let's hope that the data module you stole contains it." Halsey revealed.

Catherine cursed. While she was splicing into the main overland bundle to get Carter a direct line to Colonel Holland, she had come across a data module, which she had stolen without anyone's knowledge.

"Before you ask," Halsey continued, "I was alerted the moment you attempted to access it's contents, as I am with any unauthorized tap. I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work!"

"Maybe you'd like to join her," Carter smugly commented.

Halsey was annoyed. "I'm sorry?"

"We're currently under planetary directive Winter Contingency; I'm sure you know the punishment for civilian interference with a SPARTAN deployment." Carter continued to smugly comment.

Halsey could not deal with the sight of Spartan 3's anymore than she had to, so she decided to not bother commenting on it and instead gave Noble team their next mission. "Two weeks ago, contact with the sizable population of the Viery Territory was lost. Go investigate."

Carter was just glad to get away from the deliberate hostility of Halsey. "Let's move, Noble Team."

As they left, Caboose waved goodbye to Halsey and Jorge looked at Halsey. "Ma'am?"

"That...will be all, Jorge." Halsey said.

Jorge nodded and as he followed the other while putting on his helmet, he thought about Caboose waving and smiled. _I think I'm going to like this guy!_


	4. Chapter 4

_That night..._

Caboose and Jun slowly and stealthily moved up the mountain while A Covenant Phantom slowly patrolled the area.

"Recon Team Bravo reporting in, 3 and 6 in position. It's starting to get crowded up here, Kat." Jun reported through the comms.

"Then we're closing in." Catherine replied. "Report any Covenant structures or devices; direct action may be necessary."

"Copy that. Over and out." Jun replied.

"You talked, I win!" Caboose said somewhat loudly.

Jun groaned. He remembered that he had told Caboose that they had to stay quiet and whomever was quiet for the longest, they would win a prize.

"Here's your prize." Jun said, handing Caboose some ammo for his Assault rifle.

"Thank you." Caboose said as he put his ammo away and observed something about Jun. "You remind me of Church."

"Who's Church?" Jun asked, genuinely intrigued.

"He's my best friend, even if I killed him once and he came back as a ghost." Caboose continued.

"Right." Jun said sarcastically, not knowing that Caboose was telling the truth (sort of). "And how do I remind you of him?"

"Because you both us a sniper rifle." Caboose said.

"OK." Jun said, realising that it wasn't painful to talk to Caboose and decided to dig further. "Do any other members of Noble team remind you of anyone from your past?"

Caboose thought for a moment and shook his head.

_Good _Jun thought. _I would hate it if all of Noble team reminded Six of his past._

Caboose and Jun reached the top of the mountain and looked at what they saw in awe.

"Pretty. "Caboose stated slowly.

"Jackpot." Jun said.

They were staring at a Corvette-class Covenant ship.

"Kat, you seeing this?" Jun asked as he activated the visual feed on his helmet so that what he could see, Kat could see as well.

"Confirmed." Catherine said. "That's one hell of a covenant strike force."

"That's no strike force, it's an invading army." Jun realised. "If we're gonna smother this thing, we'll need to go in hard and fast."

Catherine thought for a few seconds. "Agreed. All recon teams disengage and fall back. The sun will be up in a few hours, and it's going to be a very busy day..." She said as Caboose and Jun made their way back down the army.


	5. Chapter 5

_The next day..._

Carter and the UNSC decided that the best way to take out the army, was to take it out with their own army. The Covenant army was huge: legions of fighter squadrons, hundreds of tanks and Ghosts and at least a million Covenant foot soldiers. The UNSC army consisted of: Noble team, Hundreds of Warthogs, a few "Mongoose" ATVs, several Scorpion tanks, Dozens of Falcons and a couple of Pelicans.

Carter, Jun, George and Emile were in a pelican, while Caboose and Catherine were in a Warthog. Catherine was driving, a random UNSC marine was in the passenger seat and Caboose was on the gun.

"Here they come!" Carter called over the radio, as the various vehicles of the covenant appeared over the horizon.

"Six, get ready to help us!" Catherine called out, not trusting Caboose to figure out he needed to do that already.

"OK!" Caboose replied and fired upon several of the warthogs, destroying them.

"What are you doing!?" Catherine asked, enraged.

"You said help them, and that's what I did!" Caboose replied.

"You two stop bickering! Their almost upon us!" Carter ordered, as the various vehicles of the covenant were almost in firing range.

Catherine then had an idea. "Hey six, help the vehicles coming towards us."

"OK!" Caboose replied and he started firing at the covenant, destroying a few ghosts.

"Good job!" George called over the radio.

The celebrations were short lived however, as the bridge the warthogs were crossing blew up.

"Hold on to something!" Catherine called out as the warthog jumped over the bridge.

Caboose decided it would be best to jump out of the warthog and did so, landing perfectly on his feet, while Cathrine rolled out of the warthog as it rolled into a tree, which killed the UNSC marine instantly.

"Kat, 6, what's your status?" Carter asked over the comms.

"We're pushing up the hill!" Catherine reported as multiple grunts and she started firing on them with her pistol. She turned to Caboose. "Come on Six, help them!"

Caboose nodded and started shooting the grunts with deadly precision.

_This guy is good _Cathrine thought. _With some training and discipline, he could make a great soldier!_

They moved up a hill, killing various grunts as they went along. Once they reached the top of the hill, they got a radio call from Carter.

"There's two massive AA guns and we can't provide air support because of them!" Carter revealed. "Their protected by a spire with a shield around it, which ONI suspects is a teleporter and where a majority of the Covenant army seem to be emerging from. We sent in a Falcon and it crashed as soon as it touched the shield."

"We'll destroy it." Catherine said with determination before turning to Caboose. "You get any of that?"

"What does AA mean?" Caboose asked.

Catherine sighed. "I'll try and explain on the way." She said as she received the coordinates to the spire from Carter and started to follow them.

* * *

After half an hour of running, walking and killing more grunts, they reached the shield.

"ohh, a shiny thing!" Caboose observed.

Cathrine had no interest in having any conversation with Caboose as she saw a small army of covenant forces charge at them.

"Come on!" She ordered and they went through the shield. She fired upon them and Caboose emptied an entire clip on the small army, killing all of them.

"That was fun!" Caboose said.

"If you want more fun, you should go use the gravity lift up the spire that has the two AA guns on it." Cathrine said.

Caboose just stared at her for a few seconds. "Yeah, I don't know what that means, so I'm just going to nod and say yes. Yes."

Cathrine just sighed. "Just go to the spire and you'll see what I mean."

"OK." Caboose said as he ran into the gravity lift and let out an excited squeal as he went up it and landed on the top of the spire. "That was fun! Can we do it again?"

"Focus on the mission!" Cathrine ordered as she landed next to Caboose. "We have to destroy the shield!"

Caboose noticed some Covenant and went off to kill them. Cathrine used this as an opportunity to go to the shield control room and deactivated the shield.

"Noble 1, we need evac now!" Cathrine said.

"Roger, we're on the way!" Carter said.

Cathrine went back to where she saw Caboose, and saw that he was fighting multiple Covenant and killing them easily.

_He would make a great soldier, if only his mind wasn't such a mess. _She thought.

Quickly, the Falcon arrived. Caboose and Cathrine climbed on-board as Carter ordered the pilot to pull out, and the helicopter turned away.

"Control, this is Noble 1." Carter announced over comms, "Spire One is green, and you're free to engage. Have a nice day."

"Copy that, Noble 1. Be advised, all ground units: Frigate Three-One-Eight heavy is inbound, and MAC rounds have been authorized." Control replied.

"MAC rounds? In atmosphere?" A concerned Jorge asked.

"One way to get their attention. Hold onto your teeth, people!", Carter replied.

Noble team watched as the UNSC Grafton soared past their Falcon and fired at the spire. Noble team watched as the Spire fell to the ground and generated a large cloud of dust.

Suddenly, an energy beam streak down from the sky, which hit the Grafton and destroyed the vessel instantly. Noble team watched all of this in horror, except Caboose, as he was distracted by the bright lights the beams emmitted.

"The Grafton is dust! We need to get out of here now!", Carter yelled. And the Falcon quickly removed itself from the area. Noble team looked up and saw what destroyed The Grafton: a Covenant Supercarrier.


	6. Chapter 6

Needing somewhere to hide out, Noble team fled to a cave.

"Our foe is more devious than we imagined" Colonel Urban Holland explained to Noble team over the comms. "That Spire was indeed a teleporter linked to a cloaked Covenant Supercarrier; a grave threat. Thankfully, help is imminent. Sixty percent of the UNSC fleet is en route to Reach from existing deployments. The first battle group should arrive within forty-eight hours."

"Forty-eight hours?" Jun asked in disbelief, "That's imminent?"

Caboose had no idea what they were talking about so he let his head wander around the cave and he saw Carter and Catherine debating and sighed. _These are as romantic as Church and Tex!_

Too bad Caboose was wrong.

"That thing's crushing us and we're waiting for backup? They'll be backing up a grave!" Catherine protested.

"All our nukes are either out-system or went down with the ships that carried them. You're preaching to the converted." Carter answered.

"How converted?" Catherine asked.

Carter glared at her. "I know that look, Cat."

"Don't you want to hear what I want to say?" Catherine asked in a sweet voice.

Carter was probably going to regret his next few words. "Fine, I'll hear it."

"Remember that accident a couple years back? Colony ship en route to Cygnus. Seven hundred dead?" Catherine reminded him.

"Vaguely" Carter thought for a few seconds. "A slipspace drive malfunction, right?"

"Actually, it worked fine. The drive was mounted improperly after a service haul-out. When it fired, it teleported half the ship to oblivion." Catherine explained.

Carter wanted to sigh exasperatingly. "And this is relevant, how?"

"A certain Covenant Supercarrier could, maybe, with some assistance, suffer the same unfortunate accident...?" Catherine teased.

Carter realized what she was saying. "Even for you, Kat, that's-"

"Inspired?" Catherine asked.

"Well that's not the word I would use." Carter said.

The other members of Noble team had noticed they were talking and approached them. "What's going on?" Jorge asked.

Catherine explained that by infiltrating a small Covenant corvette with a makeshift bomb and set the corvette on a docking course with the Supercarrier, and save Reach.

"You're scary; do you know that?" Emile commented once Catherine finished explaining her plan.

"All we need now is a green light from Holland, sir" Catherine explained.

Carter sighed. "Oh, there's no way in hell he's gonna go for this..."


End file.
